


On a Role

by Iztarshi (khilari)



Series: A Hand To Hold [3]
Category: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:47:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/Iztarshi
Summary: MedUnit drops the remains of Combat SecUnit's armour in to engineering and stops for a chat with the engineers.
Series: A Hand To Hold [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1992310
Comments: 19
Kudos: 57
Collections: Rogues and Rampancy





	On a Role

Later on in the cycle that Combat arrives I set it loose on our small weapons storage, with the understanding it doesn’t get to keep anything in there and needs to take the guns to the firing range if it has to shoot them. Mostly it’s cataloguing them, the same way it’s exhaustively catalogued Ship’s layout.

While Combat’s busy I drop the remains of its armour in to Gene and MAD in engineering. I had to scrape SecUnit off the inside to put it back on the SecUnit, so I might as well salvage the armour.

Gene doesn’t look up at me when I enter, but two surveillance drones buzz over to orbit my head. As the person who makes and repairs them, Gene’s the only one on board who consistently has drones. There’s also MAD, the multi-armed drone, half a meter across and stuffed with appendages it can extrude as needed. MAD’s not one of Gene’s drones, though, MAD’s its own person.

“I’ve got some armour for the scrap heap,” I say, putting down the bundle. “Not much of it survived, I’m afraid.”

Gene grabs the armour without looking at me, even wearing huge welding goggles on an opaque setting it prefers to keep its head down. Outside the engineering bay it wears armour (like the drones a perk of being the one making it) rather than goggles and overalls. MAD extrudes an array of sensors, mostly optical at various magnifications, and sends an analysis of the armour to the feed.

“It’s just normal SecUnit armour,” Gene says, disappointed. “I thought it would be higher quality.”

MAD turns a sensor on me. _Was it really a Combat SecUnit?_

“Yes.”

“And you brought it on board,” Gene says.

“It’s still a SecUnit,” I say. “It’s just different programming.” We all know exactly how much nonsense I'm talking, you might as well say a SecUnit and a ComfortUnit just have different programming and a few hardware changes. It doesn’t stop it from being something very different, or potentially as dangerous to us as we could be to a ComfortUnit. (Although I wouldn’t like to go up against the Captain if it was armed and neither would Gene. Maybe I’m not talking such nonsense after all.) Still, there’s a pause while they forbear to comment.

_Could be useful,’_ MAD says, _having someone optimised for combat._

“We don’t struggle so much we need to bring a Combat Unit in,” says Gene, tone offended. “We’re all optimised for combat.”

_Some of you more than others._ That’s aimed at me. MAD doesn’t approve of self-reprogramming. It was programmed to assist an engineer and that’s what it does.

“We all have to fill different roles here, there aren’t any humans to take the ones we’re not built for. Gene works in engineering, and we even have you for that," I argue.

_I am an assistant, not an engineer, and Gene still has all its security programming._

“That might change at some point,” Gene says mildly. “There’s a lot I need to know for this.”

I signal gratitude to Gene and it accepts it.

_I can provide the information you need,_ MAD says.

I’ve worked with MAD myself, making frames for body parts, and this is true. It’s a highly calibrated instrument, full of everything an engineer might need to know and every tool an engineer might need to use. The pride it takes in its function and programming is not unjustified.

“I should get back and check on my patient,” I say.

“Before you go.” Gene pushes a file into my feed.

I open it and find schematics. Not SecUnit schematics (all the bits of us that aren’t standardised are proprietary) but ones for specialised athletic augments. I pounce on the feet for various runners and start comparing them to the ones for jumpers and also what I know of my own feet.

“Oh, _thank you_ ,” I say. “You have no idea how much I worry about people’s feet falling apart if we don’t get them right.”

“Bring some frames down when you’ve read it,” Gene says.

_Don’t bring the Combat Unit,_ MAD says, although I suspect the thought came from Gene.

“I won’t,” I say. “It would be bored stiff. But it really is just a person.”

**Author's Note:**

> Gene and MAD didn't quite make it into _Trust Fall_ so they're getting a mini one-shot to introduce them instead. Here they are, proof that MedUnit does talk to people who aren't CSU :D
> 
> With thanks to lunaTactics, who betaed this one for me and did an excellent job.


End file.
